That’s exactly the spirit that Ramsey Nijem (4-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Tony Ferguson (10-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) brought to the house on “The Ultimate Fighter 13,” and it paid off handsomely in getting them to the finals of the reality-show tournament.

But if you were to look a few years into the future of their careers, you might see the attitudes possessed by Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida, who have made explicit use of time inside the octagon and find themselves on the cusp of a title shot if they can impress the UFC brass.

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale goes down Saturday at the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The main card airs on Spike TV (9 p.m. ET/PT), and the prelims stream on Facebook.

It’s not the resolve of veterans that gives life to reality television, though. (Have you seen a second “comeback” season?) It’s the shortsighted, bullish, alcohol-fueled moments of a young fighter’s career that keep “The Ultimate Fighter” going far past what many think is its logical expiration date.

Cases in point: Nijem and Ferguson.

More eyes rolled for Nijem than perhaps any other character on the show. He made it easy by dancing around like an ex-Chippendales dancer on several occasions. There’s just about no better way to make fighters uncomfortable than with homoerotic behavior.

Now, you might think that was all part of the plan for Nijem. By distracting his fellow cast members with his antics, he set them up for the ambush when he took to the cage and poured on the intensity with skills sharp beyond his years.

But you’d be wrong.

“That was never my game plan going in – to act like a goofball and make people underestimate me,” Nijem told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “It was more be myself and do what I do normally. Just be comfortable and relaxed.

“Once I had my first fight, I think the people realized I’m a serious fighter and I turn it on when I fight, and outside of the cage, there’s no need to be serious.”

Were there consequences to his antics? Of course. He might have downright creeped out some of the people around him. But he’s not particularly concerned about that. He finished all of his “TUF” opponents: Charlie Rader, Clay Harvison and Chris Cope.

“If it annoyed them, that would be their own problem because if I couldn’t have fun, I’d be pissed too,” Nijem said. “A couple of people might have thought I was annoying for the cameras, but for the most part, I got along with everybody in the house. We all just wanted to have fun because we were bored most days.”

Of course, not everybody felt that way. In the case of Ferguson, that boredom led to behavior completely unplanned that had immediate consequences. Ferguson, in fact, left a bad taste in the mouths of his fellow cast members – not to mention fans of the show – when he brought Rader’s family problems to the fore after Rader playfully poured water on his head late in the show’s season.

If Ferguson had a plan for dealing with the extreme levels of stress, he might not have encountered a situation that made him look like such a callous person.

“It sucked, unfortunately, but that’s what happens when you mix in alcohol and you’re stuck with a bunch of guys in a house,” Ferguson said. “I’m a nice guy, but that was an extraordinary situation. I know who I am, and my family knows who I am. But everybody in the world, they get to see what I’m made of after this.”

Ferguson now realizes that he might have a lot of work to do with the fans as a result of the incident. The thing is turning the mistake into a positive.

“As far as fans go, obviously, I did make a mistake,” he said. “But I’m paying for it. My Twitter has been blowing up like crazy, and even Facebook. I’ve had people send me some crazy messages I never thought I would get.

“But it brought me back to reality and made sure that I do have to make a difference and I do have to change some things about myself. And it’s not me. I saw what other people saw, and I want to make my parents proud just like any other person (who) competed in this sport.”

Title shot hangs in balance for lightweights Guida, Pettis

Anthony Pettis (13-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Clay Guida (28-11 MMA, 8-5 UFC) matured in the cage, though they had different timelines in doing so.

For Pettis, it was a fight with Shane Roller in the now-defunct WEC that made him grow up. Before, he was a guy known for kickboxing and an uncanny ability to catch guys in triangle chokes. But against Roller, he had to use everything in his toolbox.

“That was the fight where I became a more complete fighter,” Pettis said. “I was definitely a professional before that, but I became a complete fighter, and I actually got to implement my wrestling defense and my overall MMA skills. That’s the fight where I became more comfortable in the cage.”

OK, so he didn’t plan to launch the kick that launched him to stardom in his most recent fight against Ben Henderson. But he did plan to stifle the then-champ’s wrestling and cut angles that allowed him to win the striking war, and he planned to avoid the submissions that had felled other competitors.

Now on the cusp of a title shot against the winner of UFC champ Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard – that has yet to receive a date because of injuries to both fighters – it’s time for Pettis to show he belongs among the top lightweights in the world. Trainer Duke Roufus has been helping him to prepare for that, and he’s definitely got a plan to defeat Guida.

“I train hard, and I push myself to the limit every time I’m in the gym, and it shows in my fights,” Pettis said. “A year and a half ago, nobody knew who Anthony Pettis was or even cared about Anthony Pettis. To now fighting a guy like Clay Guida, it’s amazing and it’s a blessing. I’m just going to keep doing what it took to get me here.”

Guida, meanwhile, is a guy who’s anchored to a gameplan. It didn’t used to be that way. He used to just get in the cage and hope he could break an opponent with a relentless pace. But as he found out, they were more than ready to match him, and in fact, they knew exactly where his weaknesses were.

Now that Guida has relocated to Greg Jackson’s camp in Albuquerque, N.M., he’s the guy who’s praying on his opponents’ weaknesses. Most recently, he caught former PRIDE champion Takanori Gomi with a slick guillotine choke that Gomi never saw coming. It looked like a rabbit pulled out of a hat.

Guida isn’t too talkative about how he’s going to take Pettis out of his game, but he promises to deliver the kind of performance that will allow him to steal the youngster’s thunder.

“I think a dominating victory will definitely look better in the eyes of (UFC president) Dana White and (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva and the UFC,” he said. “Jim Miller is out there; he’s fighting one of Anthony’s former opponents in Ben Henderson.

“So it’s an interesting kind of little debacle in the lightweight division. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and unfortunately, it’s going to be a little delayed with the injuries of Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. But the only thing Anthony and I can do is go out and put on a great show, which I know is exactly what I’m going to do.”

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